The government’s investment in development plans meant for addressing climate change impacts has gone up over the years. 

The Citizen Climate Budget unveiled recently states that the country’s investment on climate-relevant development activities has increased by seven-folds in the last five years.

The report entitled  “Nepal’s Citizen Climate Budget: Where is Nepal’s money being allocated?” has been jointly prepared by the Freedom Forum and United Nation’s Development Programme (UNDP) and seeks to visualise budget figures and investment trend with the help of simple infographics, making it easier for people to understand. 

The report has gathered climate related spending from the Ministry of Finance and other government agencies to provide the public with insights into how the national budget is being spent on climate change tackling measures. 

According to the report, of the total annual budget of fiscal year 2017/18, 30.7 per cent or nearly Rs. 393.33 billion was directed for climate change related activities, which is an upward trend for highly climate change vulnerable country like Nepal. The country has been dubbed as the world’s fourth most vulnerable country in terms of climate change impacts. 

Freedom Forum’s Krishna Sapkota, the main researcher behind the study, however, suggested that the information should be interpreted carefully because the increase also reflects spending on reconstruction, including allocations made to the local bodies in light of the restructuring of the state, only parts of which are climate relevant.

Sujala Pant, of the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, said due to its high climate vulnerability, Nepal will be spending more in the coming years to address climate risks, so it becomes even more significant for people to know where the money is going. 

Vijaya Singh, of UNDP Nepal, said that the Citizen Climate has shown that climate relevant budget touches every sector and that the progress made on addressing climate change directly contributed to the overall sustainable development goals.